DON’T SLEEP ON THIS KID

Holman the team’s star, but Mora also vital for Eastlake

SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. 
On a Little League team with a 6-foot-2 kid wedged in the middle of the lineup, it’s easy to see how 5-foot-5 Nick Mora can slip off teams’ radars.

Count Connecticut manager Tim Rogers among those who haven’t exactly prioritized game-planning against Chula Vista Eastlake’s unassuming clean-up hitter. He certainly won’t make that mistake again, not after Mora burned his pitchers for two home runs in Eastlake’s nine-inning win over the New England Region champion earlier this week.

“I didn’t appreciate how good he was until I went back and looked at that game,” Rogers said Friday after his team beat Washington 14-13 to earn a rematch against Eastlake in today’s U.S. championship at the Little League World Series. “You know, that second home run he hit against Harry (Azadian), it was on the shoe tops, and he went down and got it and stuck it out there.

“He’s just a wonderful hitter; there’s no question about it. … He’s somebody you’ve kind of got to avoid.”

That won’t be so easy.

For all the attention that right-hander Grant Holman is getting for his historic no-hitter last week and his game-winning homer against Connecticut earlier this week, Mora has quietly flexed his muscles throughout Eastlake’s push to South Williamsport.

He matched the zeros that Holman put up on the mound in the Western Regional in San Bernardino earlier this month, was a homer shy of the cycle in that tournament’s game-clincher, and came through when Eastlake needed him most Wednesday with those two homers — the second sending a jolt of life through the dugout when Chula Vista was down to its final three outs against Connecticut.

All that helps explain why Eastlake manager Rick Tibbett has no problem turning to Mora for today’s start. The difference between him and Holman — who is unavailable to pitch until Sunday after throwing 66 pitches Wednesday — isn’t as glaring as it appears.

“I look at him and I just see confidence in his eyes,” Eastlake manager Rick Tibbett said. “He’s a good kid. Our kids look up to him, and I look up to him.”

Of course, that’s the sort of thing that fades into the background when games move onto national TV during a hectic week at Little League International’s headquarters. Baseball people are projecting all kinds of ceilings for the 6-foot-2 Holman, school girls are swooning over Micah Pietila-Wiggs’ and Jake Espinoza’s dirty-blond hair, and all the while the Eastlake coaching staff is trying to put the emphasis back on a team filled with players who know their roles and play them well.

Mora’s part? A little bit of everything.

He’s a surprisingly powerful bat in the middle of the order, slick up the middle at shortstop, sneaky good on the mound with a fastball that tops 70 mph, and he could be a pretty good backup to catcher Patrick Archer if Eastlake didn’t need him in the middle of the diamond.

“He’s just a kid who quietly goes out and just does it,” coach Doug Holman said of Mora, who is 4-for-10 at the plate and has six strikeouts in four innings on the mound at the Little League World Series. “He’s fundamentally sound, he’s the fastest kid on the team, can play any position, has a cannon for an arm, can flat out swing it, and has the best footwork on the team.”